Hi Art,

I got around to pulling out the wiper motor assembly on my 1992 today.
More rain tonight so it’s in the garage.
One new windshield on another car is now getting tested.

While taking the under side crank arm off everything looked nice and even the rubber grommet look tight.
I couldn’t tell where it had ever leaked from or no trails onto the metal body part of the car.
The center of it look nice too.

Then I went topside and got the wiper motor out along with a terrific amount of yank.
There was a big gob of black sticky sealant around the housing shaft filling out so much to be pulled through the hole with the wiper unit.
Is that normal I’m asking now?
I sure don’t remember pulling one out from a junkyard car that hard any way.

It was stacked up in between the upper mounting panel on the front of the cowling and wrapped around down to the inner passenger compartments firewall.
Ending on top that the grommet it seemed.

When I pulled it left the grommet tightly in its hole. I didn’t move around like in your video.
I had to push hard with a nylon body tool to have it exit the hole into the cabin.
All that packing and the grommet was covered in vegetation of decayed leaves along with dirt. The dirt was probably leaves rotted.
I picked out with needle nose pliers and vacuum the rest. About a half cup of fluff.

During the pick out I looked from above down the grommet hole with a light. I could see that the cowling has a lower trough or pan running from the right to the left.
The surprising part was that the pan ends right over the wiper housing.
Everything travels and gets dumped right onto that pile of sticky butyl and of course the grommet.

I wonder was the butyl was from the factory or a repair done any previous owners?

I’m now contemplating how to extend that trough’s edge to dump water & debris past the wipers housing.
So far I’m thinking to use some 3M VHB tape to hold a semi flexible material to the bottom of the trough.
Maybe a piece of plastic can lid warmed slightly to fit the trough’s shape. That tape is strong and will underneath out of the weather.
I wonder why they let it be short right there?
It needed about two more inches, for good measure, from what I can see.

There isn’t a whole lot of room between the two holes and having to work up towards the pan.
With all that goop the water could not only sit there over time but get helped in by the water fall above it.
This modification needs to be simple if I do it five more times.

The grommet in there is the same Volvo part number you posted and the motor looks original.
I was halfway expecting a gasket for the housing but not one made in this manner with its quantity used.

All of this make me wonder how about the two wiper arm housings.
Are they sealed with butyl tape or does that trough pan cover them all the way across and therefore, it doesn’t matter?
They should be bolted to the inside firewall with a sheet gasket of some type?

I ask you this as you have been all over these cars and apparently inside the thermostats too with pictures!
(:-)


Phil